A DKM Adventure

Waiting for a different bus to come to take us to Sunyani.

This morning, I planned to travel to Sunyani, about 7 to 8 hours from Lawra, to hide away for a few days. The purpose of"hiding away" was to be focused on writing my Ministry and Growth Plan for the upcoming year, reflecting on the past year and looking forward to the future. Razak came to my house early, very early, and we left at 1:30 in the morning to walk to the DKM bus station in Lawra. We arrived at 1:45 and waited for the bus, which came at 2:15. I was able to buy a ticket and found my seat...the last row, center. We were on our way! When we arrived in Wa, I remarked to the guy next to me that it seemed our driver was driving very slow. It took forever to get to Wa and almost an eternity to go as far as Bole.He agreed that it was taking longer than expected.

Moving luggage from one bus to the next. Yes, the cracked windshield was on the "better" bus.

There was no use trying to sleep. Since we were in the last row, every time we went over a speed bump or a speed table, we all flew into the air! I held my backpack part of the time, but was able to put it at my feet part of the time. The two seats next to me were occupied by two adults and three children, none were infants. One of the children sat by my feet for a good part of the trip. We arrived at Bamboi around 8:00 am. The two men on the other side of me alighted and two other people replaced them. Shortly after we left Bamboi, the driver pulled to the side of the road. The was a problem.

Our new bus driver bought all of us water and continued our trip...

The smell was not fresh air, it was that awful smell telling that something was definitely not right with the bus. We were told a different bus was "on the way coming." More than two and a half hours later, it arrived! I was grateful that it wasn't hot season. The weather was quite pleasant...and, there was plenty of thick, tall grasses around if you had to relieve yourself. 

Oooops! The mirror broke off and was hanging by a cable. A "fix" was in progress.

The luggage was moved from one bus to the other and we were finally on our way! This time, I sat in front. Nice! Everything was going along quite well, until...the driver noticed that the bracket of his side mirror had rusted through and was now hanging by a cable. So, we stopped to fix it.

The mirror was tied up so that it wouldn't swing by the cable and possibly hit the window.

The guys took some rags and pieces of cloth to tie the mirror in place. It wasn't usable, but, at least now it wasn't swinging from the cable. And, it wasn't in danger of hitting the windshield. We were on our way again! All was well for about twenty minutes. Then...

Oh, no, the mirror fell and started swinging again!

The mirror got loose! It started swinging again. We were on a narrow part of a curvy road, so we couldn't pull off right away. But, the driver did slow down. After a short bit, he did stop and tie the mirror in place again. On the road again...We were almost to Sunyani! We finally arrived at 2;15. It was a twelve hour trip that should have taken seven to eight hours. But, that's life in Ghana!